Why I'm traveling over 4,000 miles to attend INBOUND 2017

I will be traveling 4,732 miles from Athens, Greece to Boston, Massachusetts to be exact to get to INBOUND 2017. Now, keep in mind, that is if I had a direct flight but I'm not sure those even exist anymore. I work remotely for WSOL as a Senior Marketing Strategist, but also travel around the world while working full-time. I am not the only one traveling long and far to make it to INBOUND 2017, there are over 90 countries represented at this one event and over 19,000 attendees. This trip will be worth every mile, every layover, and all the discomfort from sitting in one seat for over 8 hours. Here are just a few of the reasons why I believe INBOUND 2017 is worth the trip.

Thought leaders

With people like Brene Brown, Michelle Obama, and Rand Fishkin speaking at INBOUND this year there is a wide variety of incredible opportunities to learn from thought leaders from marketing topics to the power of courage. Each year, it's exciting when HubSpot starts to announce who the major keynote speakers will be, but what I look forward to is reading through the hundreds of sessions and creating a schedule of break out sessions that match topics I am looking to learn more about. Within those hundreds of breakout sessions there are many speakers that, although we may not know their names at first glance, have incredible experiences to share with us attendees. These are the industry experts that work in the trenches of marketing and sales each day and lean on their experience to educate and inspire us throughout the week at INBOUND in Boston. Learning from other marketing experts who work in the field day-to-day much like I do is this amazing opportunity to look at similar projects in a brand new way.

Enjoy this picture of my dog, Reggie, dreaming of meeting Michelle Obama. You can also check out the Dogs of Inbound at #dogsofINBOUND.

Marketing Expertise Networking

It can be really inspiring to learn from thought leaders and peers during their presentations, ask questions, and take notes on new methods to test in our own projects at WSOL during break out sessions. INBOUND takes this idea one step further and creates even more opportunities to connect on a deeper level by creating many specific networking opportunities. You can only imagine the excitement and events that ensue when 19,000 people show up in one city. This creates the opportunity for us to connect with others on more specific ideas and learn from my peers’ challenges and success stories from the last year. This allows us to keep in touch with old friends we have met at previous INBOUND events and to make new ones that I often keep in touch with for many years to come. I find there are times when a marketing or sales team is small and getting out of the office and talking to others in the industry about how we strategize towards success can be incredibly inspiring. It's like when a group of football fans who have watched last week’s game gets together to talk about it. We all speak the same language, but overcome our challenges in different ways throughout the year. This is an opportunity to collaborate on those and think outside of the box together.

Face time

I'm not talking about the video chat application on iPhones, even though I enjoy using FaceTime often. INBOUND offers me an exciting time to not only meet with my team members that I don't see on a day-to-day basis while working remotely and traveling around the world but it also creates a great environment to catch up with clients who are attending, as well. While working remotely, I tend to come back to the WSOL HQs every couple of months but I still always look forward to being in such an energized and inspiring environment with the WSOL team and clients. We get time to throw around new ideas, share ah-ha moments, and simply enjoy new foods together from the great food trucks that are at INBOUND for lunch. (Pro Tip: Don't forget to make time for at least one lobster roll while you're in Boston! You won't regret it.)

Action oriented

Lastly, but probably my number one reason for traveling so far to attend INBOUND and ensuring I never miss this conference, is the action oriented nature of this conference. I have been to other inspiring and fun conferences, but I always leave INBOUND with several pages of new ideas and action based notes to bring back to the WSOL team for future planning. Almost every sessions is structured in a way that gets your wheels turning and has examples of exactly what the presenters have discovered through their projects and this leads to many items that I look forward to implementing with the WSOL team once INBOUND 2017 is over. For this fact alone I feel the ROI of INBOUND is vast and pushes our team to another level in Q4 each year.

See You Next Week!

If you're looking for an expert filled, inspiring, and action oriented week INBOUND is a can't miss conference in the marketing and sales industry. WSOL attends every year with several team members and no matter where I am traveling I will be there each year. Leave us a comment below if you'll be there next week! We would love to meet up for coffee or lunch.

About the Author

Katelyn Ahern

As a Project Manager, Katelyn works to strategize aligned inbound marketing game plans for clients and help them turn their website into a conversion machine. She is Inbound Marketing Certified, HubSpot Certified, HubSpot Partner Certified, and she is passionate about delivering the best possible experience for website users to meet their needs.